The 49ers crime crisis routine is set, and it would be mundane if it weren't so embarrassing for a franchise that is recently falling so short of its long-held ideals.

The pattern: A 49ers player gets in some kind of trouble with the authorities, 49ers general manager Trent Baalke issues a terse response indicating little, and the legal process churns on, ever so slowly.

Oh, and the player remains on the team, most especially if he's a very good player.

That all happened again Sunday, as the Bay Area News Group first reported, when star linebacker Aldon Smith got into an argument with a TSA agent and was detained and booked by LAX police for allegedly making a false report of a bomb threat.

That got the cycle going again: The dents in the 49ers' reputation, the head-shaking and head-scratching from observers, the criticism and general discussion about the accumulation of so many problems for a team that has also won so many games.

And next, we will all wait for the next shoe to drop, because apparently there will always be a next one, and a next one, and a next one ...

Until it stops, though that is the important question: Will the procession of problematic 49ers exploits, particularly in the offseason, ever stop?

And another: How much will the 49ers power-brokers -- Baalke, coach Jim Harbaugh and owner Jed York -- do to try to make it stop?

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Through Smith's previous legal issues, York and Harbaugh spoke at length about supporting their troubled player and using the moment as a pivot point in Smith's life. This was not about coddling a good player, they suggested, it was about helping someone in their football family through difficulties.

All well and good; but how many times can you refer to pivot points and growth ... if the player doesn't show many signs of pivoting ... or growing?

OK, let's stop right here and make two things clear:

File: San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke attends the first day of mandatory minicamp at their training facility in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
(Nhat V. Meyer)

First, sports franchises aren't ever going to be fully stocked with angels; team executives are trying to win games and they make most of their choices based on gathering as many players who can help them win as possible, within reason.

The 49ers didn't build Levi's Stadium because fans and sponsors loved their character, they built it because people want to see exciting and successful football.

The issue here is how lenient the 49ers have been and how far this can go before the franchise loses much of its direction and dignity.

Second, we don't yet know what exactly happened with Smith at LAX on Sunday or what the legal repercussions might be. It would be grossly unfair to presume only the worst, though some may accuse me of doing exactly that right now.

File: San Francisco 49ers' CEO Jed York watchers the game from the sidelines during their game against the Arizona Cardinals in the second quarter at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
(Nhat V. Meyer)

But I'm not making assumptions about Smith in this or any instance; I'm just talking about the accumulation of legal miseries that can erode much of what a team wants to say and believe about itself.

So we don't know about Smith in this incident, just as we don't know what happened between quarterback Colin Kaepernick, receiver Quinton Patton, ex-49ers receiver Ricardo Lockette and a woman in a Miami hotel earlier this month; we only know Miami police are investigating what they call a "suspicious incident."

We don't know how cornerback Chris Culliver's felony and misdemeanor hit-and-run charges will unfold, or whether any of the many 49ers players who have drawn legal attention recently have all learned great lessons from the experiences.

But we do know that Smith, for one, has had multiple legal issues in recent years, including his DUI arrest last September, two days before the 49ers played Indianapolis.

And we know the 49ers allowed Smith to play in that game -- played all 72 defensive snaps, in fact -- before Smith entered a rehab center and missed the next five games.

We also know that Harbaugh sniped at the Seattle Seahawks last summer when the Seahawks were undergoing a series of PED suspensions, and Harbaugh added that "you always want to be above reproach, especially when you're good because you don't want people to come back and say, 'They're winning because they're cheating.'"

He was speaking specifically about PED use and rule-breaking, and I've been told that Baalke was not happy with Harbaugh for the grandiosity of that statement.

But there is no escaping the fact that Harbaugh said those words, which suggest a strong sense of 49ers superiority and a higher standard for themselves.

That is fine -- great teams should have great standards and if you meet all standards and if your players don't end up on the crime blotter every other week, you have a right to crow.

But if you can't keep your players out of trouble and if you are seen to tolerate bad behavior in the pursuit of victory, then you are going to hear about it.

And you will absolutely deserve it until you stop it, if that's what the 49ers ever really can do.

Now would be a good time for them to say that they do want to stop it and to tell us how it's going to happen.